'I ferment all my foods and the difference is ASTOUNDING!!! My body hums like a finely tuned machine and l feel close to immortal. All my food goes down smooth like silk and the diet is FAR improved. I feel the greatest of pleasure each day and my energy just goes on and on and on with very little food.'(Sproutarian Man)

Hi

My question is for Sproutarian Man,

In another tread, you say that you ferment all your food - Can you explain how you do that? eg what do you do with fresh fruits, veggies ou other food

This way to do seems very interesting so I'd like to know more about it.

thank you!
Cynthia

As many probably know, eating a typical unprocessed raw diet can contribute to numerous nutritional deficiencies because one isn't absorbing the nutrients from the food very well, especially with vegetables, sprouted grain and sprouted legumes, but also with soaked nuts and seeds. And the problem is that raw vegans get a false sense of security because they get blood tests done showing they have good blood levels, but what many don't understand is that these blood tests usually show what's in the blood, not what one is absorbing. Many blood tests give false positives unless certain blood tests are asked for (I think they are more expensive too).

The raw vegan diet is full of nutritional pitfalls for many reasons. One of the main reasons is absorbability of nutrients caused by anti nutrients and increasing evidence that harsh fiber can also decrease aborbability of nutrients (i'm still doing more study on fiber, but one study in particular showed this is the case). Other factors are eating non fresh foods, and other factors include not eating a diet with certain required nutrients.

And you read stories of doctors reporting some raw vegans with poor digestion actually starving to death, and it is hardly surprising.

After reading hundreds of hours of science journals on fermenting l am convinced that this practise is one of the most important things that raw vegans NEED to be doing to stand any long term chance of being able to live on a raw vegan diet. Fermenting does increase the absorption of many important nutrients, in some cases by many times. Fermentation also helps soften down the harsh fibers in plant foods. Fermentation also produces good bacteria for the intestines. These three things alone make a huge difference to improving the raw food diet, and it makes it tastier and easier to eat because of the softening of fibers.

How to ferment
* Best to use Rye and sprout it for a few days. Rye is preferred because it is a zero tannin cereal with the ability to produce the highest amount of phytase under favourable conditions. But barley or wheat can also be used.
* Put the sprouted grain in a big jar and fill it 1/3 - 1/2 with sprouted grain and fill with water.

* Cover the jar with a form of gauze cloth (air needs to be able to get in) to keep any contaminants like dust out, and keep well out of the way of people so any sneeezing won't contaminate it, and keep away from open windows.

* Let it sit for 2 days in a temperiture no lower than 15 degrees Celcius and no higher than about 35 degree celcius for ideal ferment water (some science literiture says higher temperitures are o.k, so be careful because l feel this may produce undesirable bacteria at higher levels).

* Pour off this water after two days through a fine sifter and put the water in a sealed glass bottle. That is batch one ready to go. You should refrigerate, but always serve at room temperiture, but never cold. So if a room is freezing, warm the liquid up to body temperiture if needed,

* Fill that big jar up again with water, but be sure that you leave a little bit of the fermented water over from the last batch to act as a culture starter (this makes better ferment water). After only one day pour the water off into another bottle - that is batch two made from the same cereal sprouts.

* repeat the process just above to get the third and final batch. Now discard the old cereal sprouts.

When you start a new batch of fermented water you want to pour some of the ferment from the bottles as a starter. Have a few different batches going in a rotation so fermented water is on constant supply.
How to use it
Soak vegetables in the fermented water for a couple of days and then drink the soak water before eating the fermented veggies ,or blend the fruit/veggies with the soak water. It blends quickly and keeps blend time to a minimum, and it goes down the throat smoother. You will absorb alot more nutrients that way.

I haven't done it with fruit yet. But you might want to cut some fruits up and soak them for a day and see how it goes. Fermenting preserves nutrient losses from the foods. It will also help break down tannins in the unripe fruits (store bought) and would help in breaking down complex sugars in some extensively hybridised fruits.

See, we can eat foods that are not ideal if we ferment them, it makes them alot better for us. This process is as good as you are going to get for treating fruits and vegetables.

Are there some drawbacks to this? l can't be sure, but some people are supposed to be sensitive to yeast problems, so see how you go. Fermenting works well for me and others. Just make sure you keep your fermentations clean and free from contamination and do it at an ideal temperiture.

Fermenting sprouts is even better because you are sprouting fresh food that has had the benefit of some pre treatment (sprouting), so you are getting a double treatment of sprouting and fermenting. It's also very good to ferment sprouted seeds like chia, sunflower and sesame. l am about to have some fermented chia with fermented dulse right now for my lunch.

Many raw food folks recommend soaking nuts and seeds for 24 hours, but science shows that soaking certain plant foods for this long is not adequate for getting rid of tannins and for converting enough phytic acids into harmless lower forms. In other words…it is possible that people soaking nuts and seeds can still be starving their bodies of certain nutrients, especially with really menacing foods like chestnuts, hazel nuts and sesame seeds.

You might also want to add fermented water (it’s called rejuvalic) to any green juices – hopefully this will help break down any other anti nutrients in the juice like oxalic acid and tannins. You might also try soaking the vegetables and fruits in the rejuvalic before juicing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2013 02:40AM by The Sproutarian Man.

Very well explained!!

thank you
Cynthia

cynthia, you probably don't want to ferment fruit unless you want to create alcoholic foods. The natural yeasts in the air will create alcohol with the fruit sugars.

THeSt0rm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, I just used tried to ferment a bunch of
> legumes and seeds again but for some reason the
> seeds always seem to float to the top and end up
> exposing themselves to the air. This is not good
> is it?

I don't see why not. 50% of my sesame seeds sprouts rise and the other 50-% sinks. They still go down wonderfully.

If fermentation is off you should know about it. I blew up with gas recently because l ignored my intuition because l fermented seeds for an extra day.

Prana Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cynthia, you probably don't want to ferment fruit
> unless you want to create alcoholic foods. The
> natural yeasts in the air will create alcohol with
> the fruit sugars.

The question is, how long does it take to create alcohol with fermented fruit? What about soaking fruit for 6 hours in rejuvalic?

Funny enough...l fermented sunflower seeds an extra day longer than normal and they tasted like red wine lol. Still, no negative effects were encountered and no intoxication was observed thank goodness.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2013 11:22PM by The Sproutarian Man.

I used to make rejuvelac - but the idea to soak things in it is new to me - I understand that the goal overall is to promote digestion not to come at the end with some kind of alcoholic beverage - so it's all about time

TSM, I got this email today on how to ferment fruit without making alcohol. Here is an article called Introduction to Culturing Fruit.

There is just no easy way to verify that a given fermentation worked or failed. Until there are machines to control the process and check the quality of the batch, I will pass on this. I just prefer to each my lettuce or mangoes as their are in the natural forms

RawPracticalist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is just no easy way to verify that a given
> fermentation worked or failed. Until there are
> machines to control the process and check the
> quality of the batch, I will pass on this. I just
> prefer to each my lettuce or mangoes as their are
> in the natural forms

Fair enough.

The thing is though, fermenting does provide great benefit when done properly. One can feel the difference. If you aren't fermenting you are taking on a very slippery slope because you are taking on an unforgiving diet full of anti nutrients that bind to proteins, minerals, carbohydrates, fatty acids etc because you haven't eliminated many of the plants natural defense systems.

Non heme iron is estimated to be 2 - 3% absorbable according to some science journals, but we can bring that figure up to at least 15% by fermenting alone, and probably higher with sprouting and fermenting combined. We can do the same thing with a host of nutrients, and given the lower nutrition in the soils, doesn't it make sense to be at least fermenting our vegetables and see how we fare on such food?

Many folks look at the cronometer and they get a false sense of security because they think they are getting their RDA's, but those RDA's are only gross figures in the foods...it's not what one is absorbing.

Look at what happened to the people following the `hallelujah diet' raw vegan diet. Most followers ended up with serious deficiences despite juicing large amounts of vegetables each day, having fruit and drinking barley green powder. I warned the `hallelujah diet' guru his diet was a recipe' for failure and he scoffed and played down the issues, but over time the we now see proof of massive failure of his raw vegan diet for all to see. We need to be careful....the raw vegan diet can be very dangerous if it is not done well. Eating fruits and vegetables all raw is a good way to fail for most people.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2013 01:22AM by The Sproutarian Man.

The Sproutarian Man Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> The thing is though, fermenting does provide great
> benefit when done properly. One can feel the
> difference. If you aren't fermenting you are
> taking on a very slippery slope because you are
> taking on an unforgiving diet full of anti
> nutrients that bind to proteins, minerals,
> carbohydrates, fatty acids etc because you haven't
> eliminated many of the plants natural defense
> systems.
>
> Non heme iron is estimated to be 2 - 3%
> absorbable according to some science journals, but
> we can bring that figure up to at least 15% by
> fermenting alone, and probably higher with
> sprouting and fermenting combined. We can do the
> same thing with a host of nutrients, and given
> the lower nutrition in the soils, doesn't it make
> sense to be at least fermenting our vegetables and
> see how we fare on such food?
>
> Many folks look at the cronometer and they get a
> false sense of security because they think they
> are getting their RDA's, but those RDA's are only
> gross figures in the foods...it's not what one is
> absorbing.
>
> Look at what happened to the people following the
> `hallelujah diet' raw vegan diet. Most followers
> ended up with serious deficiences despite juicing
> large amounts of vegetables each day, having fruit
> and drinking barley green powder. I warned the
> `hallelujah diet' guru his diet was a recipe' for
> failure and he scoffed and played down the issues,
> but over time the we now see proof of massive
> failure of his raw vegan diet for all to see. We
> need to be careful....the raw vegan diet can be
> very dangerous if it is not done well. Eating
> fruits and vegetables all raw is a good way to
> fail for most people.

The main reason for failure of these diets is not because they were not fermenting their veggies. Fermenting is not practical not natural. The main problem is nutrient absorption. Fermenting may be useful in reestablishing digestive system health and improving nutrient absorption but to say that in every day living with have to ferment every food we eat is non sense.

Most people have lost the ability to get nutrients into their system because of years of abuse. Unless they can go thru a cleansing program and reestablish digestive health it does not matter how much greens juices and barley grass they drink, granted these steps can actually help in reestablishing digestive health over the long run.

Where are the studies that prove that fermenting unlock nutrients?

How do you improve on the juicy raw tomatoes, mangoes, or durians? They are already perfect if you had make yourself ready to eat them.

I am a bit confused about this, because some famous raw foodists suggested that fermentation was a bad thing, something to keep a limited consumption on.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding, because of Gaberiel Cousins "Rainbow green live food cuisine". Phase 1 is low sugar, but also no ferments at all. Is this because people on regular food are 'composting' already? But maybe we need some ferments at a later stage?

Kind of confusing to say the least.

RawPracticalist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> The main reason for failure of these diets is not
> because they were not fermenting their veggies.

How can you be so sure? If we aren't absorbing well and getting good levels of nutrients for this day and age then of course that is going to be a main problem.


> Fermenting is not natural.
But neither is eating poorly digested food full of anti nutrients (vegetables and unripe fruits), and neither is buying food from shops that is weeks old, and neither is picking fruit unripe and transporting it halfway across the country.



The main
> problem is nutrient absorption.
Exactly! That's why fermenting helps. Even various animals who have been raw vegans all their lives have major problems with nutrient absorption from foods, and the science has proven this.

but to say that
> in every day living with have to ferment every
> food we eat is non sense.
Quite to the contrary. It is scientific sense with many foods. Anti nutrients lock with nutrients in the acid environment of the stomach in humans and some animals. l'll post science to prove this another day.



>
> Most people have lost the ability to get nutrients
> into their system because of years of abuse.
This is partly true, but their is much more to the story than this. We also have to remember than various plant eating animals are suffering the same problem.



> Unless they can go thru a cleansing program and
> reestablish digestive health it does not matter
> how much greens juices and barley grass they
> drink, granted these steps can actually help in
> reestablishing digestive health over the long
> run.
Who is telling you this? This is part of the story, but not the whole story.



>
> Where are the studies that prove that fermenting
> unlock nutrients?
Give me a few weeks to summerise the studies (l am currently compiling them now). There are hundreds, but l will post the main ones here in a little while.


>
> How do you improve on the juicy raw tomatoes,
> mangoes, or durians? They are already perfect if
> you had make yourself ready to eat them.

Hopefully they are picked fresh and not bought from shops. That would make a good start. If fruits are picked unripe there will still be starches that the plant has not converted to sugars (poorer digestion) and various unripe fruits can still contain good levels of tannins which can bind nutrients. But that being said, a ripe and fresh mango does appear close to perfect with neglectable levels of anti-nutrients.

I have no problems with most fruits, but they need to be fresh and ripe and minimally handled.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2013 10:33PM by The Sproutarian Man.

Mislu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am a bit confused about this, because some
> famous raw foodists suggested that fermentation
> was a bad thing, something to keep a limited
> consumption on.

l wonder why they would say such a thing, do they explain why they think this? So do they think that eating crude and having low absorbability of nutrients is better?

l am very open to hearing why fermentation is not so good, but it needs to be a sound explanation. I need to hear why fermentation (done properly) is worse than eating high anti nutrient food with low digestability. I am happy to be wrong, but the explanation needs to be sound.


>
> Perhaps I am misunderstanding, because of Gaberiel
> Cousins "Rainbow green live food cuisine". Phase 1
> is low sugar, but also no ferments at all. Is this
> because people on regular food are 'composting'
> already? But maybe we need some ferments at a
> later stage?
He talks about diets in various stages of health building, so l can see why he would say this.

l would be interested what he has to say about fermented foods in general.

I still say, nothing wrong with eating a low calorie diet with fermented foods. It's not as if l am recommending eating huge amounts of fermented foods, l am just recommending eating two small meals a day of ferments.

A crazy anti fermentation site that runs contrary to the established science:
[www.rawfoodexplained.com]

Of course these disinformation agents couldn't provide any scientific references to back up their dubious claims.

sproutman

will fermenting cruciferous veggies also get rid of goitrogens?

i'd also be interested in reading up more on how fermenting gets rid of anti nutrients when u get a chance to pull out some of the best articles from your archives


thanks for the info

got some wheatberries
but maybe i'll change to rye
is there some specific type of rye that you recommend or is rye just rye?

i'm no rye expert

storm says:


<<Not sure if rye is best though. It would probably be best to have a grain that sprouts the best I would think. I know a lot of the rye berries Ive gotten don't sprout. Try maybe kamut? Or some other good sprouting wheat grain but I would definitely go for the older varieties like kamut or spelt if possible.>>

thanks for the heads up
rye doesn't sprout well
okay, didn't realize that... at all
so, out of the non wheat items
which , in your experience, sprouts best
and is a good thing to sprout
i'm trying to make rejuvelac

but i've not ever made it before

Most of the times rejuvelac is BAD. Here is Brian Clements quote

Quote

Rejuvelac. We used to call it rejuve-rot. It is not a Hippocrates invention, it is a traditional drink from the Baltic countries. We used it in the past because we thought it had lacto-bacteria. We paid for a study on rejuvelac; we naively thought the fermentation would always be good bacteria. The study found that this was not the case; 40% of the batches tested were good, 60% were bad. Also, you cannot tell by the smell if the bacteria are good or bad. Instead, you can use acidophilus supplements, and they can be taken as implants also.

[www.living-foods.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2013 08:30PM by RawPracticalist.

Storm,
Thank you for your response. I feel so listened to with the completeness of the response. I consume only fermented soy milk at this time. Maybe not the best choice, because its cooked for one, but also many people say soy isn't any good. I started it with a soy yoguert from whole foods, and just continued the strain from batch to batch.

Maybe there is a better milk to use? I haven't the slightest as to what is growing in it. It tastes good, and the same as the start, so chances are that its still the same basic strain, but I do know that over time the culture can change and become impure.

I am not a raw foodist yet. A whole foods vegan diet mix of raw and cooked is probably about all I can handle right now. I am usually very hungry most of the time, and I am concerned that maybe I am not doing something right. I am not sure what that would be, but something must be off?

THeSt0rm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Could it be possible that in wild ferments they
> often also have bad bacteria.. just that "good"
> bacteria dominates but that id "ok"?
>
> Atleast... mayne rejuvelac made with some sort of
> airlock system might be best?


What else could be done? This was the best rejuvelac factory the world had known.
Brian Clement was working for Ann Wigmore in Boston in the early days at the Hippocrites institute. He was responsible for the lab.
This was the the place where Wigmore using wheatgrass and this rejuvelac (rejucRot) we were told reversed her gray hair.

You have a point. In reading some of the books Ann Wigmore wrote (I heard Brian Clement was the one who actually wrote them and never got credits), she does not recommend any special care in making the rejuvelac. just put the wheat berries in a jar with some water and wait for 3 days.

RawPracticalist Wrote:

>
> Where are the studies that prove that fermenting
> unlock nutrients?


This is one of a bunch l will link. This is one of the most significant studies which talks about the significance of 90% phytic acid degradation compared with 100% phytic acid degradation and how zinc and iron absorption can increase 200% with 90% degradation up to 500% with total degradation. This is more realated to sproutarians with sprouted grains and legumes, but it could also be applied soaked seeds and nuts. Germination and fermenting is the key to imnproving iron and zinc especially, but it also helps manganese and calcium and various other nutrients (more studies on those later). Best to read the last page or two if you don't want to read it all.

Influence of Vegetable Protein Sources on Trace Element and Mineral
Bioavailability1
Richard F. Hurrell2
Institute of Food Science ETHZ, Laboratory of Human Nutrition, CH-8803 Ru¨ schlikon, Switzerland
[jn.nutrition.org]


Vitamin C can also incease iron absorption in high phytate foods, but phytic acid still plays a role in it's effectiveness.

Iron absorption in man: ascorbic acid and dose-dependent
140 Am J C/in Nutr l989;49:l40-4. Printed in USA. © 1989 American Society for Clinical Nutrition
inhibition by phytate13
LezfHallberg, Mats Brune, and Lena Rossander
[ajcn.nutrition.org]


Those above are very important studies, but we'll get to other stuff which related more to vegetables with their tannins, handling procedures and their impacts on nutrition soon. And l'll show how fermenting can dramatically increase nutrient absorption in various vegetables.

Got some real big boy studies to post yet, and you will be left in no doubt that fermenting vegetables is the key to unlocking nutrients in raw vegetables. Hold tight, the good stuff is yet to come.

www.thesproutarian.com

RawPracticalist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Most of the times rejuvelac is BAD. Here is Brian
> Clements quote
>
> Rejuvelac. We used to call it rejuve-rot. It is
> not a Hippocrates invention, it is a traditional
> drink from the Baltic countries. We used it in the
> past because we thought it had lacto-bacteria. We
> paid for a study on rejuvelac; we naively thought
> the fermentation would always be good bacteria.
> The study found that this was not the case; 40% of
> the batches tested were good, 60% were bad. Also,
> you cannot tell by the smell if the bacteria are
> good or bad. Instead, you can use acidophilus
> supplements, and they can be taken as implants
> also.
>
> [www.living-foods.com]

Yes, l was about to post that. The problem [l see] with Dr Ann's making of the rejuvalic was that she only covered it with gauze wire and left it in a public place at the Institute with lots of people around. One sneeze and it's likely ruined and will go bad. BUT...40% of the batches were good, so it shows the process does work, but it shows much more care must be taken when making the batch.

It's best to cover with 3 or 4 layers of muslin cloth, keep in the dark, and keep in an area where no contamination will occur from people or open windows. Ann Wigmore broke all these vital rules.

(re- post)


<<Rejuvelac. We used to call it rejuve-rot. It is not a Hippocrates invention, it is a traditional drink from the Baltic countries. We used it in the past because we thought it had lacto-bacteria. We paid for a study on rejuvelac; we naively thought the fermentation would always be good bacteria. The study found that this was not the case; 40% of the batches tested were good, 60% were bad. Also, you cannot tell by the smell if the bacteria are good or bad. Instead, you can use acidophilus supplements, and they can be taken as implants also. >>

makes you wonder:

what "bad" bacteria are they referring to? e.g. e coli?

also, what are all the "good" bacteria that fermentation yields? ( is it more than lactobacillus and acidophilus?)

still interested to know if fermentation gets rid of goitrogens
but i guess that's one out of many plant chemical 'defenses"
there is a laundry list of these

la_veronique Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------


> also, what are all the "good" bacteria that
> fermentation yields? ( is it more than
> lactobacillus and acidophilus?)
There are plenty of them and they all have funny long names.


>
> what "bad" bacteria are they referring to? e.g. e
> coli?
l would be surprised. The bad bacteria have lots of funny names too. Probably get the bad bacteria from people's breath, sneezing and all the problems with fermenting in public rooms.



>
> still interested to know if fermentation gets rid
> of goitrogens

The news doesn't look good. In some foods it can even increase the goitrogens. That's no problem...it just means we have to limit those foods if we consume them year around. Instead of having broccoli, collards and spichach each day it might be a good idea to replace them with fenugreek/clover and alfalfa sprout juice half the time. Believe me...making sprout juice is not so hard to live with.

The rejuvelac experiment is not worth the risk even if the bad batches were only 5 percent of the times. One bad batch contains millions of bad bacteria. Ten glasses of good rejuvelac cannot undo the damage of one glass of bad rejuvelac.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2013 03:01AM by RawPracticalist.

sproutman storm

that's interesting info about the goitrogens
both the theory that goitrogens are increased by fermentation
and that sprouting will lessen the amount of goitrogens

any idea where i can learn more about that?

sproutman do u have any in your archives ? ( guess u've already had lots of requests)
that's a topic i'm very interested in
would love to learn more

the notion that goitrogens would increase during fermentation process of a cruciferous vegetable fascinates me for a number of reasons

of course, i'd like to know for my own health

but on another plane, the question that strikes me is this:

WHY would anti nutrients increase during this process since the plant is already "dead"

i mean that it is "dead" in the aspect that it has already been uprooted from the soil

by the time i get it ( at the store), it's probably been dead for quite a while

i feel that anti nutrients are stored for the chemical defenses of plants ( it does not wish to be eaten.. if u were a plant, you too would have your arsenals handy)

however, once a plant is uprooted, in my opinion, it is kind of "dead"

so why would a plant still wish to increase its chemical warfare when its already dead?

conversely, how is it that goitrogens are decreased when its more alive than ever ?
if i were more alive than ever... i might INCREASE my defenses to stay at a high level of aliveness LOL

just musing

but seriously, if you have any archived material , i'd love to take a look at it

la_veronique Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sproutman storm
>
> that's interesting info about the goitrogens
> both the theory that goitrogens are increased by
> fermentation
> and that sprouting will lessen the amount of
> goitrogens
>
> any idea where i can learn more about that?
>
> sproutman do u have any in your archives ? (
> guess u've already had lots of requests)
> that's a topic i'm very interested in
> would love to learn more
>
> the notion that goitrogens would increase during
> fermentation process of a cruciferous vegetable
> fascinates me for a number of reasons
>
> of course, i'd like to know for my own health
>
> but on another plane, the question that strikes
> me is this:
>
> WHY would anti nutrients increase during this
> process since the plant is already "dead"
>
> i mean that it is "dead" in the aspect that it
> has already been uprooted from the soil
>
> by the time i get it ( at the store), it's
> probably been dead for quite a while
>
> i feel that anti nutrients are stored for the
> chemical defenses of plants ( it does not wish to
> be eaten.. if u were a plant, you too would have
> your arsenals handy)
>
> however, once a plant is uprooted, in my opinion,
> it is kind of "dead"
>
> so why would a plant still wish to increase its
> chemical warfare when its already dead?
>
> conversely, how is it that goitrogens are
> decreased when its more alive than ever ?
> if i were more alive than ever... i might INCREASE
> my defenses to stay at a high level of aliveness
> LOL
>
> just musing
>
> but seriously, if you have any archived material
> , i'd love to take a look at it


Plants do not die just because they are uprooted. Many will continue to grow as long as they have enough water in their systems. seeds can remain dormant for thousands of years. It is only when you cook them that they die.

Does anyone here consume raw vegan kimchee on a regular basis? I love kimchee but haven't had it for a long time. I know the sodium content is high, but is there a way to make it low sodium, or at least lower sodium?

Another thing I thought about today is clover. I have eaten fresh clover leaves I grew myself in a container. I really love them, but its probably has a lot more fiber than people are used to. I didnt eat very much of it, as it was a small flat that I could harvest only from time to time. I thought today that fermented clover must be even more amazing. Perhaps it could be made into kimchee?

THeSt0rm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh, when I think about it too.. what is the best
> way to consume chia? Well I know, greens but
> sometimes if you want it for omega 3 fatty
> acids... they do absorb a lot of water. I would
> think this ends up dehydrating the body. Chia is
> often mixed in large amounts of water but still
> the seeds should be chewed. THey even make a
> fermented chia drink using kombucha and sell it in
> stores, but they are not fermented.
>
> I would imagine perhaps that sprouted and then
> fermented chia would be best... maybe fermented in
> rejuvelac. But is drunk the best way to consume
> it? I think it would be best so that it doesn't
> end up dehydrating the body by absorbing water,
> instead by putting it in a drink it is overflowed
> with water so all of it is not absorbed.
>
> Or at the very least if taken as a "solid" food
> then just make sure there is enough water to
> saturate the seeds fully ie with more water than
> it can absorb. But it's an interesting concept
> because water/liquids is usually not to be
> consumed with food, or atleast in limited amounts.
> Only 'water' that should be consumed is the water
> that already comes with the food naturally right?
> For proper digestion. But you (TSM) also drink
> dulse flakes so... that's kind of the same thing.
>
> What do you think?

Chia is a really nasty old food and the raw movement completely misses out on the true benefits of chia because they consume it incorrectly.


We are told all sorts of crazy things about chia today, but are we really able to digest this food well, or is it a marketing myth cashing in on our ignorance?

There is not much information known about chia, but one thing we know for sure is that it's protein is poorly digeste and it is high in fiber/gell/phytic acids. Some science says it is not the highest source of omega 3's as a gross value, but tohers say it is. Also, the seed is high in phytic acids, so this means various nutrients won't be absorbed well, and l think the gell may cause problems too.

Some Chia seed science:
[www.respyn.uanl.mx]

Grinding does appear to be of great importance, so how do we prepare it for the best benefit? l would say to sprout the seed 2 - 3 days, try to let it dry out and then crush it with a mortar and pestle as fine as you can, and then soak in rejuvalic for a day. l think that is as good as you can get it for eating, but the hard part is drying it properly without any negative consequences like white fur starting to turn bad. Even if you can't dry it properly (l haven't managed to dry it yet), just crush it after sprouting.

My biggest challenge is trying to dry it and make a crushed sprout powder and then ferment it.

Haven't been able to find any evidence that chia is high in oxalic acid or tannins as yet despite various unfounded claims being made.

l'll get back to the rest of your posts and other posts on your eating plan another time. Lots can be said.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2013 12:25AM by The Sproutarian Man.

Plant Foods for Human Nutrition
June 2012, Volume 67, Issue 2, pp 105-110

Supplementation of Milled Chia Seeds Increases Plasma ALA and EPA in Postmenopausal Women

Fuxia Jin, David C. Nieman, Wei Sha, Guoxiang Xie, Yunping Qiu, Wei Jia:
[link.springer.com]


See, grinding it up brings down the phytic acid, so just imagine what sprouting and fermenting can do.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2013 12:42AM by The Sproutarian Man.